So Far So Good
by eekabeeka
Summary: His laugh is contagious and I feel the need to smile. I probably look like a dork, but he wouldn't care. The one person in my friend circle that I can tolerate. Peeta Mellark. A/N So this story is an AU and is rated M for mature 'thoughts' and language. It is loosely based on my life. Trust me here, the story will be better than the summary. I suck at writing summaries.
1. Chapter 1

_So this is the new story that I came up with. It's somewhat loosely based on my recent life. It is rated M for mature thoughts and language, not actual sex scenes. If you want sex scenes, go read 50 Shades of Gray or watch some porn._

**Chapter 1 – Homecoming Part 1**

"No kissing, no drugs, don't get pregnant, love you and have fun." My mother tells me in monotone before she shuts the door in my face. The ways she says this is too rehearsed. I already know that she doesn't really care about what I do, but sometimes I would like for her to show she may care about me a little. Ever since my (real) father died, she hasn't been the same.

I hop in the front seat of my step father's truck and close the door behind me. I sigh and look at my ticket. It reads, 'Mardi Gras Masquerade, admit 1, October 12.'

Tonight is my freshman homecoming. No, I do not have a date nor do I want a date. I'm not really even going with friends. We're all just showing up and seeing what happens.

"Katniss," he says as he ignites the engine. I don't even look in his direction. I hope my silence is enough for him to realize I don't want to talk about anything. Noah isn't my real father, so why should I listen to his 'fatherly advice?' "Katniss, she means it."

I sigh. "Noah just, shut up."

"I told you before you could call me dad if you want."

"Exactly," I say making eye contact, "I don't want to. You aren't my real father so why should I call you dad?"

.

When we pull up to the school, I throw on my heels and straighten out my dress. It's black on top with spaghetti straps and cream on the bottom with black rose lace. It's a hand-me-down from my older sister, Prim. She is twenty-two now and out of the house.

Before I can close the door, Noah speaks. "Katniss, I love you like a daughter. I want you to open up to me. Can you at least try?"

"No." I say, barely letting him finish.

He holds his hands up in defeat. "Just be safe, okay? Don't do anything stupid."

"You can't tell me what to do." And with that I shut the door and walk away from his car.

My mom thinks she loves him, which very well may be, but she can't love him like she loved my father. Not once have I seen anyone as in love as my parents were, and that has lead me to believe that I will not be able to fall in love. It's just not worth my time and effort.

I walk into the cafeteria and hand the student council member my ticket. She marks the back with a marker and tells me to have a fun night. Like that could ever happen. I'm only here because I hear that the punch is spiked and the brownies have pot in them. I haven't done any drugs yet, what's holding me back?

The hallway leading to the gym is just sad. There are cardboard paintings of "New Orleans" and a big welcome sign that says "Welcome to New Orleans." Huh, I wonder where I am…

As I walk into the gym, the nasty smell of teenage sweat and brownies surrounds me. I spot some of my friends talking next to a circle of chairs that seems to be missing a table around them. Maybe they thought people wouldn't want to grind and actually be social in a non-sexual way. Those chairs are going to be cold all night. I shake my head and make my way to my friends. We exchange greetings and continue on with the conversation.

My feet start to hurt from what I like to call my whore shoes, or I guess Prim's whore shoes. They are too small for my elephant feet so I slip them off and take them to hide with my phone and ticket in a corner of the gym. I kneel down and hide them in a dark shadow so no one can see them. When I get back up I turn around. There is a dim lamp shining on an area blocked off with the cheerleader's mats covered in bed sheets.

Make-out corner. Luckily nobody has put it to use considering it's only three minutes into the three hour night.

.

Music is blasting in my ears. I have no idea what song this is, therefore I have no interest in dancing. I tried dancing with my friends, but I just couldn't. Party Rock Anthem and the Cupid Shuffle were okay but nothing too special since everybody knew those songs.

I go to get a drink of punch, but when I taste it I do a spit take and throw it out. It wasn't spiked or anything, if just tasted like fifty year old Kool-Aide. When I turn around, I see a figure that seems to tower over me laughing. "Katniss, please do that again." He smiles and claps his hands. His laugh is contagious and I feel the need to smile. I probably look like a dork, but he wouldn't care.

The one person in my friend circle that I can tolerate. "Peeta, I don't know. I want to lick a camel's butt to get that taste out of my mouth."

"Why? Is it spiked?"

"No, it just tastes terrible." Even in the lack of light I can see him smirking. I also don't fail to miss the beads of sweat on his forehead. Only now do I realize how much I am sweating. "It's really hot in here and I can't stand the grinding, you wanna com outside?"

"Sure." He puts his hands in his pockets and we walk side by side to the door.

The school set aside a little area surrounded by Christmas lights and a tacky light-up Christmas tree just outside the gym. I want to yell at someone because it's October not fucking December.

It must be about forty degrees outside but I don't really care. At least I don't have to be inside.

Peeta and I hover near the Christmas tree. "What time is it?" I finally ask.

He goes to his wrist and finds nothing but his watch tan. "Shit, I think Clove still has my watch."

Clove isn't really one of our friends, but she pretends to be. She can get a little too bossy and annoying. A lot of people, and apparently her not as well, like to take Peeta's watch. Mostly to laugh at his tan line.

"Do you have your phone on you?" Peeta asks.

"No, where would I put it?" I stand back and my hands drop to my sides.

"Uh," he begins with a slight blush forming on his cheeks.

"No, Peeta I'm not going to put my phone in my bra. I don't have enough chest for that." I roll my eyes at him. He shakes his head and looks off into the night. "What about you? You have pockets, where's your phone?"

"Oh yeah! I forgot I had it." Peeta reaches into his pocket and reveals his phone. "It's like nine thirty."

I whimper and start playing with the ring on my finger. "What's that?" Peeta's voice breaks the silence. I look down at the ring and shrug. "Is that an engagement ring?"

"No, well yeah. My dad, well real dad, gave it to my mom. After he died she tried to sell it, but I kept it." I smile a little bit. "Sometimes when I'm at home I put it on my left hand because it feels like it fits better." I switch it to the ring finger on my right hand. "I guess I forgot to switch it back tonight."

Peeta nods. "This is kind of a fail of a night."

I let out a chuckle. "Yeah pretty much everyone is here to have butt sex with clothes on." Peeta's eyes get wider at my bluntness. "Well, if you take away the clothes it's like a sex fest!" A few sophomores give me weird looks when they overhear me. "It's true." I say defensively.

"Yeah I guess so," Peeta nods. I take him in while he looks away. I only go up to his chin, if even. I can see a little blonde stubble, telling me that he shaves already. I never noticed before now.

A small gust of wind blows and causes me to shiver. I bring my arms up and wrap them around myself. "How long have we been out here?" I turn to Peeta.

He takes his phone out and sighs. "Only fifteen minutes." I shiver again and step a little closer to him. His frame blocks some of the wind and warms me a little bit. "Are you cold?"

"Yeah a little. But it's fine."

Peeta shakes his head. "No, we can go inside if you want."

"Okay fine, but just to listen to one song. I feel like I'm going to throw up if I see someone grind."

_Okay so there's chapter 1. There will be at least 2 chapters for homecoming, I'm not sure yet. This story will be different from my others because I actually know what is going to happen up to a certain point. Since this is based on something that is and has been happening to me, the end is unknown unless I make it up._

_If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do review or PM me to let me know._

_Wow, I sound so formal all of the sudden._


	2. Chapter 2

_Someone asked about my age, but I will not tell you. As I said in the previous chapter, this is __loosely__ based on my life. Not everything is the same, but the basic relationship between Katniss and Peeta is very similar to what happened to me. Just because I started my story in October of freshman year does not mean I'm a freshman. I don't really care how old you think I am, but I just don't like sharing too much personal things about my life on the internet._

**Chapter 2 – Homecoming Part 2**

"What time is it now?"

Peeta takes his phone out. I sort of wish he liked dancing so we could go on the dance floor.

Wait. Did I just think that?

I shake it off and direct my attention back to Peeta. "It's ten fifteen." He shoves his hands in his pockets and stares off to nothingness. Quite a sight we are; the lonely girl who has friends but doesn't talk and then the guy who could talk to anyone he wants but for some reason chooses the girl. I can feel people's eyes on us, but they look away as soon as I catch them. "Katniss, you want to head back outside?"

I nod and start walking to the doors. Once we're outside and next to the lame tree, I start to shiver again. I lean closer to Peeta and start to feel a little warmer. I rest my head against the brick wall behind us. Peeta stiffens a little bit but relaxes after a few seconds. "Any reason you're leaning against me?"

I step a little further away from him. "Sorry, I'm just cold. You're like a human heater." Fuck, did I really just say that?

"Well if you're cold we could just go back inside."

"No, no I'm fine." I shake it off and wrap my arms around myself. As I do so, two sophomores start walking towards us. George and Matt. They think they're so cool, but they're not. Playing Halo all weekend long doesn't make you cool. End of story. "What do you want?" I avoid making eye contact with them.

"Aww! Look at the cute freshman couple!" George says in some foreign accent. I don't care enough to know.

"We aren't a couple." I mumble. I just want these guys gone so this night isn't as horrible and it's turning out to be.

"Oh, our apologies Mrs. Mellark." Matt smirks.

I roll my eyes. "Look, could you dick heads please go away so I can try and have some sort of fun tonight?"

"No can do, young grasshopper. We need to talk to Peeta here." Matt smiles and looks to Peeta. "How far have you gotten in Halo?"

I lean back against the brick and drown out their conversation. I don't play video games nor do I have the desire to. "Hey Katniss?"

I look up and see Peeta standing beside me. "Yeah?"

"You wanna go inside now? It's been close enough to fifteen minutes."

"Sure." We go back inside.

Music is still blasting and people are still grinding – and more of them for that matter – but it's just a little bit stuffier. I listen closer to the music and frown. "You know, I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga in the first place but I do like some of her songs. Journey on the other hand is one of my favorite bands. You can't put those two together."

Peeta stares at me like I have two heads. "Uh-"

I chuckle. "Just listen to the music, if you can even call it that." He narrows his eyes and bites his lip. "You hear it now?" I give him a half smile.

He nods. The DJ must be half asleep because he is mixing Just Dance with Don't Stop Believing. "That has got to be one of the worst things I have had to experience all night."

"What's the worst?"

"I don't know, maybe it's spending all this time with you," he jokes.

I backhand his stomach. Peeta covers it and my hand in fake pain, but fails to realize my hand is still there. I giggle. _What the fuck am I giggling about?!_ I want to say, but I keep in inside. "Peeta, I'm sorry, I don't do those kinds of things until marriage." I say as seriously as I can. He backs away and widens his eyes. I just laugh at his expression, but he seems to be getting annoyed with me. "I'm sorry, it's just that you closed my hand with yours and I could feel the waistband of your pants. To be honest, it wasn't the most awkward situation I've been in with a guy."

"Oh really?" I nod. "May I ask what situations you have been in?"

"Yes." I nod and wait for him to say something else, but he just raises his eyebrows. "Oh you mean now?"

"Yes, I mean now," he says with a laugh.

"Well, you remember that stupid field trip last year?"

"Elitches wasn't stupid!"

"No, that was actually fun." I start smiling at a memory from there that has to do with Peeta…

"_Come on let's go on the bridge! If we catch it at the right time we could get soaked down to our underwear!" Delly pulled on Peeta's arm._

_It was our whole group of friends; at the time it was me, Delly, Peeta, Clove, Madge, Glimmer, and Johanna. Yes, Peeta was in a group of girls, but his guy friends ditched him back at the Mind Eraser._

_Delly flirts with Peeta way too much. (She doesn't see him as any more than a friend, well that's what she had told us. I think I believe her from all the stories she tells us about some 17 year old who lives in South Carolina.) Actually, everyone flirts with him in some way because he lets them and is an easy target. He doesn't realize it but he __almost__ flirts back. I've heard people say that he isn't the most attractive guy at the school, which may be true, but he isn't as bad as I've heard in the hallway._

"_But Delly, what if I don't want to get soaked down to my underwear? This shirt is annoying when it's dry, let alone wet!"_

_I shake my head, "Well then why did you wear it." He opens his mouth then closes it for lack of response. Normally Peeta Mellark cannot be rendered speechless, but it is not unheard of. "Let's just go."_

_I grab Clove and Johanna's arms. If we're going to do this, might as well just get it over with._

_I hear screams as we walk onto the bridge. The log is making its way down the hill and then a wave of water splashes all over. I hold on to the handrail so I don't fall on my face, which would hurt._

_After we go back to retrieve our shoes and phones, I hear Peeta complaining about his shirt. I look up and see him trying to wring it out while still wearing it. "Peeta, just take the damn thing off." I shake my head and go back to tying my shoes._

"_Katniss?" He sounds so surprised…_

_I look up after finishing the knot and find all eyes staring at me. "What? I just heard you all complaining about how you haven't seen any shirtless guys so there you go!"_

_Everyone's faces go red, but Peeta's is the worst. "Uh-"_

_Johanna, who now I notice doesn't have a read face (lucky bitch) says, "Yeah Peeta, what if you have a six pack? It's on my bucket list to touch a guy's six pack."_

"_I do not have a six pack." He mumbles._

_Delly pats his shoulder and says quietly, "Peeta, we all know you take karate. Of course you have a six pack."_

"_I do not have a six pack!" Some people passing by give us odd looks. I just scowl at them until they look away. "Fine, I'll prove to you that I have nothing but flab under this shirt."_

"_Yeah, abs of flab then." I say with a smirk._

_Peeta sheds his shirt and lo and behold there is an outline of a six pack there. It's not anything major like the Hollister models, but there's still one there. I wanted to touch it, but there were people there…_

"Hey, Katniss?"

I shake my head. "What?"

"You've been staring at my stomach, I think my stomach. Am I showing?" He puts his hand on his belly as if he's pregnant.

I crack up and cover my face with my hands. "No Peeta, I was just thinking about Elitches. What were you saying?"

"I was saying I think you meant the stupid field trip, I mean 'college visit' to that community college."

"UHG! That was one of the worst days of my life! Anyway, so we had that EMT class that we visited. All the girls had to wear dresses or skirts, as you must remember."

"Oh yeah I do." Peeta smirks.

"Haha, no." I shake my head once again. "So when we had to pick up the person and put them on that flat boardy thingy, I was in a group with Greg." Peeta nods and I continue. "So I didn't get to choose where to go and the asshole supervisor had me roll him over."

"I don't get it."

"Then let me finish." I give him a small smile so I didn't come across rude. "Well I had to kneel by him in my dress and put my hand in his pocket."

"Well, uh that was interesting."

"I swear it was so awkward, like the time we played the nervous game in study hall and Johanna put her hand in Aiden's pocket and was grossed out because she thought she touched his other thigh."

"Why is that so gross?"

"Because it wasn't his thigh."

Peeta presses his lips together and closes his eyes. When he reopens them, he says, "I still don't get it."

"Peeta, I hate spelling things out for you." I let out a small laugh. "What is between the legs of a man?"

"Uh, oh. Oh! Oh God that's nasty! Did she really touch it?"

"Hell if I know, probably! It was through his pant pocket though, so it could have been worse."

"Anyway back to awkwardness at the community college, did you go into the bathrooms?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Well apparently the girl's bathroom and a free condom dispenser in it but the guys didn't."

I pinch the bridge of my nose with my fingers and close my eyes. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Nope. But it was a college, what do you expect?" I nod. "We should walk around and see if there are any of our friends that aren't dancing."

"Why not?" I smile slightly

Peeta stuffs his hands in his pockets and we start walking

_.._

_So the story about Elitches actually happened. The eighth grade field trip to a community college actually happened. Yes, one of my friends may have actually touched a guy's dick during the nervous game, but it was in band, not study hall. And the condoms. But most importantly, NEVER mix Lady Gaga and Journey. that is a mistake that should not have even happened once._

_I don't know when I'll update my other story, Because of You, at this moment in time, but it will be updated in the near future. I am aware that someone has written a story with the same title, but I would like to point out that I put mine up way before they put up theirs and I have not taken anything from theirs to my knowledge._


End file.
